Buwan ng Wika Post Celebration-MLC

The celebration of the Buwan ng Wika or Linggo ng Wika finally celebrated on September 6, 2008 on the floors of MLC. The theme of the celebration for this year is “Wika Mo, Wikang Filipino, Wika ng Mundo, Mahalaga!” This is to show appreciation of the importance of one’s own culture, other’s cultures and the different languages/dialects in the country. The program begun at around 8:30 and was commenced by a pair of young children dressed in Barong Tagalog (for the boy) and Filipiniana (for the girl) who were the hosts/commentators of the said event. The singing of the National Anthem marked the formal starting point of the programme. The anthem was conducted by a girl who is in Grade 3. This was followed by a prayer led by a Preschool child. The audience who were also the students of the centre accompanied by the staff and some guests were inspired by the remarks delivered by the Foundation Education Manager.

A presentation was flashed before their eyes about the history of the celebration showing them a visual inspiration. The people around applauded to the Preschool patriots who recited a poem followed by their interpretative dance of the song entitled “Hawak Kamay”. The other children took part in the poster making contest which was divided to two categories. Three groups composed of 3 children were under the elementary category while two groups composed of 2 children were in the high school category. The poster making contest lasted for an hour. Winners of the contest received their prizes which were announced by the three young and talented judges. Trivia questions challenged the children to think and answer. Children who answered correctly received prizes. The Centre Coordinator summarized and closed the event thus made the program ended before everyone enjoyed the prepared food.

It is the first celebration of MLC after series of planning during the recent meetings. The celebration was originally scheduled the last Saturday of August but it was moved because of the conflict of the training/seminar given to the staffs/volunteers of the programs handling zero to six years old.

..the hosts of the celebration..
.. preschooled preschool.. ..judging the smiley judges..

..listening attentively....preschool's presentation of "hawak kamay".. ..poster making contest winner for the high school category.. ..winner for the elementary category.. ..poster making contest product..
..singing for the national anthem.. ..the prayer leader..
..preschool patriots in their poem presentation..

..the FEM's opening remarks..

A Day with the YAP

Young Adult Program Seminar and Outing

The Young Adult Program seminar followed after the S Camping on April 23-27, 2008.

 Cheering competition/presentation
Meet the Spartan

discussion about expectations in the seminar

presenting / reporting what were discussed

"Itaguyod at patuparin ang Kumbensyon ng Karapatang Pambata Tungo sa Pamayanang Makabata"

Reporting on What I need and What I want

What represents yourself? kawayan (bamboo) why? useful and looks down even if it's too tall

..puno ng manga (mango tree)..why? (+) it is on the ground like me and cannot live without water (-) sometimes it remains unnoticed.

List of the NEEDS ans WANTS

NEEDS:-pagkain, gamot, pera, pag-aaral, damit (levis)...VIRLANIE

WANTS:-kaibigan, magulang, kapatid...

Rights of the Children reported by the YAP to the YAP

Listening and taking down notes

..ngorrkkk..i'm sick and tired. i need to rest for a while..

..an activity where the youths can write the things they like and don't like about the person. (a paper was pasted on their back.) this is to know and undersand their own selves/characteristics..

"i have to take down notes because i need to study this seriously. perhaps, the facilitators will give us evaluation and the winner might have a prize... :)"

..tired and hungry..

..listening attentively...

..the young gentlemen..

relax and enjoy the nature

..yap..

Summer Activities

The Brain's Exercise

The center has finally started the long awaited summer activites offered to the enrolled children from the different houses after weeks of preparation. History/Geography (formerly Discovery) started their activities earlier than the tutorial since the facilitators of the tutorial activities attended the Sibuhi outing.

Motivating the unmotivated children

"i'm puzzled.."

History through puzzle

Puzzle

Story Reading/ Story Telling

The tutorial later followed after a week. One of the lessons is English focusing on sentence construction.

The facilitator instructed her first two students in the afternoon to write something about themselves.

Marikina River Bank Outing

The MLC outing was held at Marikina River Bank last November 9, 2007. 30 children who successfully attended their activities in the centre must have joined this said outing but some of them were not able to come. Some of them were reprimanded by their houseparents or staff in the homes because of misbehaviours. Anyhow, the 19 children who were able to come enjoyed walking and running around the cemented pathways. Most of them appreciated the janitor fish leaping from the water, (the water was dirty since it rained the other day), and would even like to catch them. The guard often called their attention because it was forbidden. Some played ball games where the carabao sculptures (made out of stone) were located. The children were on top of those carabaos while passing the ball to one another. Some were playing football on the ground using the ball of the basketball and tossing and catching the smaller balls on the half cemented and half grassy part of the football field. The ball was thrown into the river so the facilitators needed to run through the river banks just to follow where the ball was going while shouting for some help from the man on the boat.

I thought the coordinator would dive into the water as he was about to do it. My gosh...The water was dirty and it was muddy. Just imagine a person who would dive into it then found himself planted on the mud. It was almost like a rice field.

At around 2:00, the children were tired and decided to go home and take a rest. It was 3:00 when we reached Yague Street.

MORE OUTINGS!!!!!

First Quarter Examination for 2007-2008

120 children take the First Quarter Examination
Amidst the rain coming in torrent, the children enrolled in pre-school and tutorial lessons took the First Quarter Examination last Aug.13- 18, 2007. Mathematics, Filipino, and English subject which is composed of Reading and Language in the tutorial lessons were given by the teachers following the same tutorial schedule. Pre-school subjects like English, Filipino, Mathematics and Science were given to the Nursery and Kindergarten children by the Pre-school facilitator.

The effort done during the assessment is really a big help in grouping the children according to their levels. This makes the result of the written examination positive. Most of the children got a good score; however, there are some who failed due to schedule conflicts, behavioral problems and the like.

Regarding the computer class, the volunteer facilitators gave an application test wherein the children applied the basic concepts they learned from their computer lessons. The Basic Computer Course for the smaller kids entered data in the excel sheet and followed the facilitator’s instruction. On the other hand, the Young Adults made a presentation depending on their topic of interest using the Power Point Presentation. Through this, the children were able to express their insights, enhance their creativity, overcome their stage frights and observe the proper way of reporting.

Monitoring the Children

Teachers and facilitators worked hand in hand in filling up the progress report card of each child for monitoring purposes. They had to write down the results of the examination, their observation during tutorials and the cognitive aspect of every child to track down the progress. The cognition is based on the monitoring card of the child which is being checked every session of the scheduled tutorial. All of these are communicated to the different homes through the feed backing with the House Parents and Social Workers.

paglinang sa kaalaman

Education is just like the game of chess. Why chess? Why not basketball or football? Yes, these games may have common grounds to be understood before the players play, however, in chess, only one player plays and wins. One has to learn at least the names, arrangements and the different moves of the pieces more has an idea on how to give and get out of check. Basically, this is what I do in Tutorial Room 1 (TR1) with the children I am handling.

I don’t teach them chess literally because I know they’re good in playing it. As a facilitator, I just want them to realize that as they move their pieces they must already know the proper arrangements and the names of each member of the board game. Just like in education, the children can not read and blend words like cat, dog, goat or rainbow without knowing the letters and sounds of the alphabets or even find the value of X-Y without mastering the basic mathematical operations. I am handling children from Level 1 to Level 4 and some of them lack these abilities especially the one’s enrolled in the higher levels. There are some instances that the topics hardly penetrate their minds.

Being the initiator of these kids, I have to find other ways and techniques to help them dig in to their minds the concepts and applications of our topics. Sometimes, we need to do our lessons on the floor to make them comfortable and combine play activities to lessen their boredom. I have to involve their talents as well since most of them are very talented and artistic. They draw, color, cut and paste figures or pictures and even compose a poem or a song basing from the pictures that they like. They can create their own melody through the use of a guitar or can adopt the tune from their favorite songs. The children like challenges and do well if they understand the lesson. This motivates me to do our evaluation through a contest by giving them numbers to solve. We also do story telling through the use of puppets and power point presentation to make our session interesting instead of just merely reading the story book. Most often than not, we also sit or lie on the matted floor while watching movies related to our curriculum. It helps them think critically and teaches them to value life.

These are just among the things that I and my students do in TR1. I don’t want them to chase the rainbow but just like in chess, the player must plan first before executing a good move. It’s up to him to think and weigh before he do a checkmate. So come, let’s play chess in TR1. :)


*february 2007 nung dumalaw mga sponsors*

Swimming in RMC

*october 2006 sa swimming pool*
Another exciting event has happened again for this month courtesy of Magellan Learning Center (MLC) team/management. This was the two-hour swimming outing held at Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Vito Cruz, Manila on September 17, 2006. The said event was organized for the children who attained excellent performance in MLC and even at home for the previous month.
A total number of 34 kids along with 6 staff joined the outing out of 50 requested participants. Ate Pie and Ate Malen, Project Coordinator (PC) of Caress Home and Social Worker of Ella Yallah Home respectively, said that the 16 kids were not able to come because of some reasons, one of which was the bad records committed at home even though they always attend MLC.

Anyhow, the children and staff were so excited that they even paraded under the heat of the afternoon sun in going to the jeeps terminal. Kuya Jeremie, the Center Coordinator of MLC, being the “majorette” led the vigorous kids jovially. Two jeepneys boarded the outers until Taft Avenue and had another 3-5 minutes “walk-a-thon” up to the main location. The team rented swimming gears for the children who were screened out of not having the accepted swimming attire.

The youngsters took their first shower before running to the swimming area where they drenched themselves. Mama Alma of Gabay Buhay Home (GBH) and Ate Malen joyfully served as watcher to the younger kids who delightfully played and splashed water to one another while Ate Pie acted as life-guard to the older children who gleefully jumped and dived at the other pool. On the other hand, Kuya Jeremie assisted some small kids and played as the Baywatch man as he taught them how to swim.

The writer had seen the happy faces of the children as they swam to and fro like fishes in the sea. It seemed like forever but just like in a movie, it had to end as well. At around 4 o’clock, the children took last quick shower, returned the gears and proceeded home.
There’s no denying that the children really relished themselves to this outing. Each of them has their own stories to share unaware of the stimuli which encourage the others to sail through in all the activities and behave satisfactorily at home. Guess this might be a challenge for them to do their best for next month.
Kudos to all those who partook! Good luck on the next level of the coming spree. See yah! ☺

Fort Santiago Outing

The footsteps of Rizal

The Building

One of the objectives of mlc is to provide a monthly outing for children who attend tutorials most especially to those with complete attendance. Hence, an outing was organized by the team and held last July 10, 2006 in Fort Santiago, Manila. This is to further expose the children in real life experiences and broaden their knowledge away from the books for the meantime. This is a way to have fun, enjoy and learn at the same time. This will also encourage the kids to keep on attending the tutorials and motivates the others to participate in every activity that the MLC offers. Moreover, it promotes rapport among the children and staffs as the foundation of a good comradeship.

Children and adults alike were transported back in time to the days of Spanish rule and Filipino revolutionary ideals in pre-20th century Philippines. The second batch of mlc students also visited historic Fort Santiago and (literally) traced the footsteps of our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, on a path from his prison cell to the fields of Bagumbayan (now Luneta Park) where he faced martyrdom. This activity, one of regular monthly outings organized by the Magellan Learning Center, was indeed a learning experience for everyone. It not only gave one an interesting crash course in Philippine history, it was also an opportunity for the children to develop an awareness and appreciation of their “roots”. On a lighter note, it was a time to simply relax, have fun, run around, and share food and stories at mealtime. This question, asked by one of the children some days later, probably sums up what this event was all about: “Kailan tayo pupunta ulit?” (When are we going again?)

*July 2006.*